Anyone here from Austin, TX?

[Yetra Flam]

I guess I'm getting pretty tired of New York, so I've been looking at Nevada, Arizona but mostly Austin at the moment.
Anyone here wanna share experiences or advice? (On both Texas and relocating.)

[mikizee]

I've heard good things about Austin. Good stand up comedy scene.

Other than that I cannot help you

[pshabi]

I guess I'm getting pretty tired of New York, so I've been looking at Nevada, Arizona but mostly Austin at the moment.
Anyone here wanna share experiences or advice? (On both Texas and relocating.)

Stay away from Nevada. It becomes a drag eventually. Took about 4 1/2 years for me.

[YoungRemy]

I lived in Austin in 96-98 before NYC then eventually LA.
my brother is about to raise a family there.

I'm sure the small handful of posters from ATX will tell you the same thing- great town for young people. great music town. tech and gamer friendly as far as the job market goes, such a vibrant place with plenty of options as far as nature and outdoor adventures go.

centrally located in the great State of Texas but totally different than the rest of its TX counterpart cities.

good luck!

[Yetra Flam]

Awesome! So happy to hear that!

[mikizee]

Bill Hicks loved Austin so that's good enough for me

[FunkyHiFi]

I don't live in Austin but have visited there several times starting in '89 and really wanted to move there or at least one of the outlying towns where it's cheaper to live.

Unfortunately the last ten years the city seems to have undergone a lot of changes and am not so sure I want to move there anymore.

You might want to check out this forum for more detailed info - it's given me a lot of info but I try to remember that not everything on the internet has been fact checked: Austin at city-data.com (http://www.city-data.com/forum/austin/) (they have specific relocation/local discussion forums for most cities here and abroad).

[TAL]

Tejana will be here to write about Austin in a couple of hours.

[Bob]

as i understand it, austin is basically the portland of texas

[tejana]

Hola from Austin... yes, I'm the longtime Austinite-- been here a million years except for brief periods. More than 20 something years here.

I'm not gonna do the usual exaggeration/snarkiness.People think the heat/tourists/etc are exaggerated, they're not. PM me for more details or whatever I missed.

1. Austin is HOT. Really hot. Hot starts in late April, it's in the 90s in May, then upper 90s-low 100s from June to mid Sept. Then it tapers down, sometimes it can be chilly by Halloween, sometimes it's still in the 80s. Thanksgiving can be anywhere from 70s to 30s. Austin rarely gets snow/ice, and everyone drives like morons when we do. We get snow/ice maximum 2 days a year.

2. I mentioned driving.. if you're from NYC, you may not have a car, which is illegal in Tejas. (joke) BUT this is an auto-centric state, and, while Austin has more mass transit than some Texas cities, it's still pretty hard to get around without a car. There are buses, VERY limited rail. If you don't have a car, you need a bike & helmet, need to be fearless around clueless drivers, AND

3. Live centrally. Living in central austin means (some combo of the following:) you pay a lot/ live in a tiny, falling down place. It can be a hard time finding GOOD funky instead of BAD funky, and affordable. Apts are at least $100/sf in the central area, but that's just a guess, and rents range from $500 to $2000+, depending on location & features, which leads to

4. EMPLOYMENT. There are a lot of young educated people here, willing to work for LOW pay. So if you thought those rents didn't sound too high, remember the pay here is prob lower than you expect. You'll be competing with tens of thousands of UT students, etc. Did I mention that I was unemployed here for almost 3 years? If you are high tech, this is supposed to be The Place, but don't tell my friend's hubby and 2000 coworkers who were just laid off from HP. I think most of the jobs are software based, not hardware based.

5. PEOPLE. Like FunkyHiFi said, Austin has changed a lot in the past 10 years. I know anyone who has been in a city a long time tends to gripe... but as part of my job I actually watch demographics and land development, etc. Austin has EXPLODED in population, but the roads and city are still small, so it feels crowded. It's promoted itself as cool for so long that ONLY TOURISTS, INDUSTRY INSIDERS, AND RICH PEOPLE (combo of college brats and gross old people, ha) get to go to events like ACLfest anymore. Seriously. SXSW is still achievable, but it's really difficult to get wristbands. There are lots of good restaurants, affordable, too. The music is good and bad and everywhere. You will end up liking some country music, even if it's just a little bit. There are lots of parks, lots of outdoorsy people, but you better enjoy the heat.

All discussions of Austin begin and end w the HEAT.;)

[Yetra Flam]

Thanks for that Tejana, that was really helpful :)

[kll]

I love Northern Nevada (Reno area)- it's beautiful - the weather is perfect - it's high desert, so you get warm summers (rarely over 90) and all of the seasons with some snow in the winter, but not enough to disable you (or force you to have a 4-wheel-drive). You are 30 minutes from Lake Tahoe, so camping, boating, hiking, etc. is at your fingertips. You are close to dozens of other lakes and outdoor rec areas, you are a 3-hour drive from San Fran, so you can make it down to live shows and back for work the following day, you are an hour flight to Vegas or LA. It's a University town, as well as an arts mecca with the influx of Northern California peeps, so there is always plenty of culture, but with a small town feel.

Love it!

[trailerprincess]

Been to Austin twice and loved it, really enjoyed it. People are great and city is mucho fun. Barton Creek is like a little oasis, highly recommended

[Pres Zount]

You're only moving to check out their bogan situation.

[Yetra Flam]

There's no bogans in America!
Except this one time I was in this large American department store and there were Australian bogans there - how on earth did they manage to get here?!

[Pres Zount]

What do they have instead of bogans?

[silence7]

Sister went there for a week to look into moving from Cali. She said it was really strange becauss the people were so NICE.... She loved it, but ended up staying here. Oh and she said everywhere they ate the food was great.

[FunkyHiFi]

Slacker (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102943/) (1991) at the Internet Movie Data Base.

[Myu-to]

Austin is awesome. Home of the University of Texas, and it is the state capitol of Texas. More than half of my family lives there, I highly recommend the place.

(y)(y)

[Myu-to]

as i understand it, austin is basically the portland of texas
Portland, ME or Portland, OR?

[kll]

Portland, ME or Portland, OR?

I'm going to guess he meant OR... everyone is moving there...